Death Over the Dam (A Hunter Jones Mystery Book 2) (10 page)

Grady’s cell phone beeped. He put one arm around Dee Dee as he answered. She tensed up and struggled to be free. He let go of her with his arm, but grabbed her hand and held it tightly.

“That’s great,” he said over the phone after listening for a moment.” That sounds like it for sure. Yeah, I know where Buckhead is. Let me write down the phone number”

After the call was over, he beamed at Dee Dee.

“That was the lady from the newspaper,” he said. “The one I told you was going to come out to see us on Sunday afternoon, the one who likes your paintings so much. She found out where Meredith’s is, so we can go there and you can get the clothes you like.”

Dee Dee ‘s sullen look disappeared.

“When can we go?” she asked.

Grady looked at the clock. “Let’s get ready and go now,” he said. “I don’t have any jobs for a couple of days. We can take the camper and stay overnight at Stone Mountain, and go to Meredith’s tomorrow.”

Deirdre was all smiles again, back to her sweet self. Grady relaxed a little. He had enough on his mind without worrying about without Dee Dee getting into one of her bad moods, and it seemed like a very good time to take a little vacation.

The phone beeped again. This time he could tell it was his mother, and he didn’t much want to talk to her because he knew what she was going to say. He let it beep until the message came on, and then turned the phone off and went to pack a few clothes for himself and for Dee Dee. When everything was ready, he opened the metal lock box on the top shelf of the closet, and took out cash for the trip.

Hunter ran out of things to do at home by 11. She knew Sam would be all tied up with the Thigpen murder investigation, so she called and asked him if he wanted her to bring him some lunch at noon. She wanted to tell him about the cake for Bethie.

He sounded happy to hear from her and definitely did want lunch.

CHAPTER 13

T
HE PHONE RANG AT
M
AGNOLIA
C
OUNTY
sheriff’s office and Shellie, who was having coffee and conversation with Skeet Borders, took the call.

“Magnolia County Sheriff’s Office. May I help you?”

“I know whose body that is in that coffin.”

The voice was nearly a whisper.

“Who is this please?” Shellie asked, turning on the speakerphone and giving Skeet a significant look.

“I don’t want to tell you my name,” the voice rose. “I’m married and my husband don’t know I knew this man, that is the one in that coffin.”

“Who is it?” Shellie asked as Skeet reached for his notebook. Shellie jotted down the number that had showed up on her telephone.

“J.T. Collingsworth. That wife of his killed him. You ask out around that trailer court.”

“Can you spell that last name?’

She spelled it slowly.

“Which trailer court?” Shellie asked.

“The one almost to the county line just off 23. You just ask them out there, and that’s all I’m gonna say.”

“Oh, come on,” Shellie said in a just-us-girls voice. “You can tell me what her name is. It’ll save us a lot of time.”

“Her name is Lucille Collingsworth unless she’s got married again. I wouldn’t know ‘cause I don’t go near where she lives and I wouldn’t know her if I saw her, but she killed him for sure, and I ain’t never heard of his body turnin’ up. And that’s all I’m gonna say, and I gotta go now.”

“How did you know Mr. Collingsworth?” Shellie asked.

We was in love,” she said softly. “He was gonna get a divorce from her, but it was takin’ a while cause she was sayin’ she wasn’t goin’ to move out, even though that trailer was his. They was fightin’ all the time, about it, cause she had paid to put the fence up.”

“So they were fighting,” Shellie said. “What makes you say she killed him?”

“You just ask those people out there,” the woman said. “They heard the gun shots and the dogs carrying on, and he ain’t never been seen since by nobody. I even called his job and they said just hadn’t showed up for work.”

“Where did he work?” Shellie asked.

“At the kaolin plant.”

“About when did all this happen?” Shellie asked in a relaxed way, because the woman seemed to be relaxing.”

“Five, six years ago.”

“Did anybody report him missing?”

“I didn’t, ‘cause at first I thought maybe he had just left town and I’d hear from him. I don’t know about nobody else. Prob’ly not though. That’s one mean woman. I knew somebody who lived out there, and the talk was that she shot him and them pit bulls ate him. I got married about a year after all that, but I still got a place in my heart for J.T. and I would sure like to think he’s gonna get a decent burial.”

“M’am, if that’s what you want to see, and you want justice done, it sure would help if you’d come in and talk to us, or tell me where you are, and I’ll come there.”

The phone went dead.

Skeet and Shellie headed for Sam’s office.

Hunter dropped by the newspaper office to check her e-mail and her in basket, and Novena gave her a worried look and said, “Did you hear?”

“Hear what?” Hunter asked, hoping that she hadn’t made some glaring error in her stories, that there wasn’t a typo in a headline, or a name wrong under a photo.

“Mmm, about Rhonda. I guess probably Sam told you.”

“What about Rhonda?”

“Well maybe you know about this already,” Novena said, “but, I just sold an ad to the new preacher over at Cathay First Baptist Church, and they want a story too, so I told them I’d write it and ..”

“What about Rhonda?” Hunter asked, bewildered.

Rhonda is coming home to do a benefit concert for the flood victims,” Novena said.

Hunter managed to have no expression and walked over to pick up her extra papers. She could almost feel her own blood pressure rising.

“And, uh,” Novena said, “There’s more.”

She seemed genuinely bothered by knowing something before Hunter did, which just wasn’t like Novena. Her voice was gentler than usual.

Hunter turned around and tried to keep her own voice normal “What else, Novena? This is the first I’ve heard of any of it, but I haven’t talked to Sam more than a minute today.”

“Well the preacher over there said we ought to interview her because it’s going to be her homecoming concert too. He said she’s planning to come back to Magnolia County to live, because she has she misses all her homefolks. I really nearly threw up. Like when did Rhonda Ransom start missing anybody?”

“I’ll do the interview,” Novena added. “You don’t need to worry about that.”

Hunter managed a shrug and got back to her car before the tearscame.

She drove around a while to calm down, to try to think clearly, but the only clear thought she had as that this ruined everything. Rhonda in Nashville was one thing. Rhonda right here in Merchantsville was another thing entirely. Did Bethie know? Did Sam know?

Had Sam known and just not told her?

She reached for her cell phone.

Sam answered, “Hey, I thought you were coming over with lunch.”

“Sam,” she said, impressed at how calm her voice was. “Did you know that your ex-wife is moving back here?”

“Yeah,” he said slowly “Her mom told me, but I doubt she’s really going to stay…”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Well, I didn’t know until yesterday myself, Hunter, it’s..”

“And you just forgot to mention it the whole time we were together last night, so I had to find this out from Novena?’

“I guess I should have,” he began, “but..”

Hunter hung up and headed home. She knew she had to talk to somebody, and the most natural choice was her landlady.

“Oh, yes,” Miss Rose said as she put on the tea kettle. “I heard about that this morning at my book club. One version is that Rhonda Ransom has failed in Nashville and is trying to come home in style by having a benefit concert. I hope you aren’t worried about her.”

“Of course, I’m worried about her,” Hunter said, “and what’s worse is that Sam knew about this yesterday and we were together last night and he didn’t even mention it, so I walk into the paper and Novena tells me.”

Miss Rose measured tea into one of her prettiest rose-covered teapots and said, “Men do misunderstand how women feel about things, Hunter. Maybe he didn’t know it would be such a big thing to you.”

“Well, I’m not taking his lunch to him,” Hunter said, hearing herself sound like a stubborn child.

“I think that’s appropriate,” Miss Rose said mildly. “You certainly wouldn’t want to go into the courthouse carrying his dinner and crying. Now don’t worry. He’ll come around and apologize.”

Hunter managed to smile. Miss Rose’s big Himalayan cat, Ozymandias, rubbed up against her leg, bit her sandal strap and purred. For a moment, the end of the world didn’t seem imminent.

“They ate cookies and drank tea in silence, and then Hunter choked up again.

“It just ruins everything!” she said through her sniffling. “I already ordered a cake for Bethie’s birthday party and now Rhonda is probably going to be there.”

“But it’s not Sam’s fault,” Miss Rose said. “You know he didn’t ask her to come back. He can’t control where she lives. I think, my dear, that you are feeling much too threatened. You can have a separate party for Bethie if you want to.”

“I am not feeling threatened,” Hunter said, knowing as she said it that it was a lie.

“Rhonda is very striking, very pretty,” Miss Rose said, “but so are you and you are much brighter and, quite honestly, a better person than she is. And besides, you are interested in Sam’s work, which I doubt I’m sure she ever was, and you have a wonderful relationship with Bethie.”

Hunter’s cell phone rang. She saw at a glance that it was Sam calling, but she didn’t answer. She wasn’t about to talk to him until she had calmed down. Miss Rose watched, understood and nodded in agreement.

Then Miss Rose’s phone rang. It wasn’t a cell phone, but an old-fashioned wall phone, and it never told you who was calling. She got up slowly and went to answer it.

“Hello,” she said. “Well, hello there Sam.”

Hunter shook her head back and forth vehemently.

“Yes, she’s here, but she doesn’t want to talk with you right now.”

Hunter buried her face in her hands.

Miss Rose listened intently and said, “Of course I will, Sam. Now you have a nice day.”

“What did he say?”

“He said to tell you he loves you and he will get his own lunch and he will come over to talk to you as soon as he gets off work, so don’t move back to Atlanta.”

Hunter smiled a little.

“I thought it was sweet,” Miss Rose said. “But what was he talking about? Have you been thinking about moving back to Atlanta?”

“No,” Hunter said, “but I guess I never have exactly told him I’m here to stay. He’s been after me about getting Tyler to give me a raise.”

“Well, are you here to stay?” Miss Rose asked. “I’ve wondered about that, too.”

“Well, I would be if Sam and I were, well. I mean, I don’t really know, but if he and I were to break up, I think I’d probably start thinking more about my career.

“Have another cookie,” Miss Rose said. “You mean to tell me he hasn’t mentioned marriage?”

Sam seldom asked for advice on his personal life, but when he did, his secretary was glad to give it.

“What you need to do,” Shellie said, “is send her flowers. I’d say this is a dozen red roses situation, at the very least. You really messed up. Red roses from Sue Ellen’s, not from the grocery store. Delivered, so she has time to get in a sweeter mood before you see her.”

Sam groaned. “And everybody in town will know about it by the time they get there,”

“That,” his secretary said, “is a good thing. I mean, Sam, I can see why she got upset. Here your ex is coming back and making sure it’s the biggest news in town, and you didn’t even give her a heads up.”

“I was thinking,” he said, “that if I told her she’d think I thought it was a bigger deal than it is. I am not married to Rhonda.”

“Well, you’re not married to Hunter either, so what does that have to do with anything? Unless I’ve missed something, you’re not engaged to her either. So what’s she supposed to tell Rhonda if she meets her—that you’re going steady?”

“I’m waiting to find out if she really wants to stay here,” Sam said.

“Well, maybe she’s waiting to find out if she’s got a reason to stay here,” Shellie said.

“I think you’re right about the roses,” Sam said, changing the subject. “How about calling Sue Ellen and ordering them for me.”

“No way,” Shellie said. “You need to call Sue-Ellen your very own self, so she can tell Hunter you did. I’ll get you the number.”

An hour later, Sue Ellen Larson headed out the front door of Sue Ellen’s Flowers with a dozen long-stemmed pink roses. Normally when orders came in, she had her teenaged son make the deliveries, but this time she left him to watch the shop, because she wanted to make the delivery herself, and tell Hunter Jones how cute the sheriff was ordering them, and how he didn’t want a card attached, and said, “She’ll know they’re from me.”